Page 178 of One Wrong Move

I kiss her. It’s impossible not to. I kiss her as often as I can, relishing her softness and warmth. “Agreed.”

“So… I’ve done eight in total,” she says. “I have a ton left.”

“Some of these are definitely doable.” But I frown, looking at that familiar number. My hand splays over her back, my fingers touching the bare skin above her camisole. “But baby, if you’re really insistent on number seventeen…”

Her eyebrows rise, and a smile flutters across her lips. “Yes?”

“If it’s important to you, I won’t stay in your way. We can do it.” The idea makes my jaw clench. “It’ll be hard for me, though. I have to admit that.”

She digs her teeth into her lower lip. “You’d have a threesome just to please me.”

I take a deep breath. The mental image that flashes through my mind, of watching another man or woman touching a naked Harper… It makes my stomach turn. “Yes. If it’s important to you. But I’d rather not.”

“How about with Austin Silver?” she asks. “I can text him.”

My entire body tenses. “Absolutely not. Someone else.”

Harper smiles and leans closer until our lips are only a few inches apart. “I love you.”

“I love you, too,” I say. “Does that mean we need to do it?”

She shakes her head, and a lock of curly blonde hair falls to tickle my cheek. “I wrote that list half-mad on a plane across the Atlantic. I was angry and sad, and wanted to shake up my life. I don’t actually want to have a threesome.”

“Thank fucking God,” I say, and my hand tightens around her. Slides down to grip her ass. “Because the idea of sharing you, just about gave me a heart attack.”

“You need to say what you want, too.”

I chuckle. “I’m not shy about what I want, baby.”

She rolls her eyes. “Not just me. But with us, with this relationship. We can work through my list if you want to, but you don’t have to. We don’t need to try… paintballing just because it’s something I thought of and wrote while sobbing and watching Pretty Woman.”

“They still show that movie on the plane?”

She nods. “Yes. I think the other passengers in my row thought I was crying because I was so moved, and I don’t know if that makes it better or worse.”

I lift my head to kiss the bridge of her nose. The idea of her crying doesn’t sit right with me. The idea of her coming to any kind of harm never will, I suspect. It’s a new feeling to care so deeply for someone. I haven’t done it in a very long time, and never in this way.

“We do things for me all the time,” I say. “Besides, all I need is you. Here. This picnic idea is growing on me.”

She smiles. “Right? I know you were skeptical, but what’s the point of having your own little backyard in London if you won’t use it?”

I look past her up at the blue sky. It’s a beautiful day in July, a couple of weeks after my siblings departed, and the second day after Harper moved back in with me. Somewhere in the tree branches above us, a bird sings, and the air around us is thick with the scent of freshly mowed grass.

“You were right,” I say.

She chuckles. “I know. I so often am.”

“Love has made you cocky.”

“Do you object?”

I kiss her again. “Not in the least. Now, what are we doing tonight? I know you spoke to Richard about having him over for dinner.”

“Yes, but it’ll have to be tomorrow,” she says. “His brother is actually in London today. Funny story, when he went to the hospital, they notified his next of kin by mistake. Huge breach of privacy, really, but that happened to be his brother… even though they hadn’t spoken for years.”

I frown. “Damn. Did that bridge the gap?”

“Oh, I don’t think it even came close, but it was an opening. Today, they’re meeting.” Her smile turns warm. “I’m looking forward to hearing about it tomorrow.”

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